Alma describes the qualities of a believer who is striving to live the gospel.
Humble: Humility is a difficult concept in that it appears to be scripturally desirable, but literarily undesirable. We want to be humble before God, but not necessarily from humble circumstances. It becomes even more difficult to define what that humility before God might actually be. One way to understand the type of humility we are to have is to define humility in contrast to another trait that we might understand better. This is the approach taken in 1 Peter:
1 Pet. 5:5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
In this verse there is an implicit contrast between humility and pride, a contrast that we understand as a viable means of defining the nature of our humility before God. Before God we are to be humble rather than proud.
It is this explicit definition by contrast that underlies President Benson’s definition of pride:
“Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing.
The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.
Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s. When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of “my will and not thine be done.” As Paul said, they “seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” (Philip. 2:21.)
Our will in competition to God’s will allows desires, appetites, and passions to go unbridled. (See Alma 38:12; 3 Ne. 12:30.)
The proud cannot accept the authority of God giving direction to their lives. (See Hel. 12:6.) They pit their perceptions of truth against God’s great knowledge, their abilities versus God’s priesthood power, their accomplishments against His mighty works.
Our enmity toward God takes on many labels, such as rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers. The proud wish God would agree with them. They aren’t interested in changing their opinions to agree with God’s. (Benson, Ezra Taft, “Beware of Pride,” Ensign, May 1989, p. 4).
Submissive: To be submissive is the conceptual companion of humility. It is another word for the attitude we are to have toward God. Our will is submitted to the laws of God and we do not resist following his way.
Gentle: We are to be gentle in our relationships with others. This does not preclude the righteous fury of a Jesus overturning the money tables in the temple, but does describe the interpersonal relationships he demonstrated with those who were around him. In a similar way, we may have times when action and forcefulness are required of us, but as a general description of our attitude toward our brethren, we should be gentle.
Easy to be entreated: We have yet another synonym for the concepts of humility and submissiveness. Who entreats us? God. We are to be easily entreated to the way of the Lord. Certainly we are to much less easily entreated should Satan choose to do the entreating.
Full of patience: In our relationships with others, patience is typically of the highest virtue.
Long-suffering: To be long-suffering is a parallel concept to patience, and should not be understood with an emphasis on the word “suffer.” Similar to the usage in the passage: “Mark 10:14 …Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God,” “suffer” should be understood in its meaning of “allow.” What then do we “allow” for a long time? We allow our fellow men to be as human as we allow ourselves. It is part of the patience required of us all as we walk on the path toward God.
Temperate in all things: This admonition appears to be a general value. Temperance rather than excess will keep us closer to the Lord.
Diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times: This suggestion is rather clear. When seen in this general set of attitudes, it is most interestingly placed along with “long-suffering” in the emphasis on the duration of our struggle to be like Christ. This is not an overnight change, but rather one to be achieved and re-achieved throughout our lifetime.
Asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, Always returning thanks unto God: These two belong together as a paired set. They both deal with prayer, and form two of the important aspects of a prayer, that we ask for our needs, but never forget to give thanks for what we do have. This paired admonition is what allows prayer to remain humble. If we were to continually ask, and forget to give thanks, we might slip over into the arrogance that God owes us. We might say to God, “I have done that thing for you, therefore you should do this thing for me.” Humility does not bargain with God, but rather reminds us of our submissiveness to his will. The gratitude we should carry in our hearts is defense against that small kind of pride.
Faith. Hope, Charity: Clearly this triplet owes its particular wording and construction to Paul. As it becomes a more distinct theme later in the Moroni, it will be more fully analyzed there.
Literary: In this set of attributes, notice how many of them are actually conceptual repetitions of other attributes in the same paragraph. This technique of using multiple similar yet different words to “triangulate” on meaning is a literary technique known for both the Maya and later Aztec people of Mesoamerica. Of course there is no way to know if there is an organic connection between this usage and that Mesoamerican literary tradition, but it is worth the note that the parallel exists.